The Christian History of the Maghreb (North Africa)

Although Christianity has a long and eventful history in the West, it lasted a mere 400 years in North Africa before being eclipsed by Islam. The church in North Africa was born shortly after original church began. From the region now knows as Libya, people first brought news of the supernatural events which occurred on the day of Pentecost in Israel (Acts 2:10). They were soon followed by others who stayed in Jerusalem to spend more time with apostles and the other Christians there. "And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." (Acts 2:46-47). Shortly thereafter, news reached the coasts of Libya that Peter had visited a Roman centurion, and the Gentiles in his house had received the salvation of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit the same way that the Jews did. The Gentiles of North Africa - Romans and Berbers - heard with great interest how the apostles and elders in Jerusalem had welcomed men and women like themselves into the church of Christ. Christians began to multiply throughout North Africa. For almost two centuries the church survived underground in constant danger of Roman persecution. The Gospel that took root in North Africa was the vulnerable faith of a persecuted minority. The first recorded Christians were six martyrs who came from the remote town of Scillium in A.D.180. The trial transcript records the events of that day:

“The proconsul asked ‘What are the things in your box?’ to which Speratus, the leading Christian of the group, replied, ‘The Books, and the letters of Paul, a just man.’ The proconsul declared his own faith, ‘We, also, are religious, and our religion is simple: and we swear by the genius of our lord the emperor, and pray for his welfare, as you ought to do.’ To which Speratus replied, ‘The Empire of this world I do not recognize; but rather I serve God whom no man has seen nor can see with human eyes.’”

For three hundred years the Berbers heard and responded to the Word of God, not because Roman power but despite it. Roman governors and magistrates tried their hardest to suppress the faith, destroy its leaders and force its followers back into the pagan worship. Among those who stood boldly in the face of fierce adversity during this time was a man named Tertullian of Carthage. He wrote, "Despite the fiercest opposition, the terror of the greatest persecution, Christians have held with unswerving faith to the belief that Christ has risen, that all men will rise in the age to come and that the body will live forever." Their faith was so strong, and their outreach so effective, that by the third century most of what is now Tunisia and much of Algeria had become Christian. As politics began to play a bigger role in religion, the instability of church leadership led to weak commitment amongst the followers. A group of believers known as the Donatists separated themselves from the corruption as they embraced the fundamentals of Christianity. Years of bitter feuds escalated, and the churches which were commanded to take the Gospel throughout Africa hesitated and staggered.

Across the Red Sea from North Africa events were taking place that would radically change the next thirteen centuries for North Africans. In 571 a young boy named Mohammed was born in the Arabian peninsula. Becoming orphaned at a young age he would be raised by his uncle in a culture much different than that of North Africa. The Word of God had free course amongst the native people of North Africa in the first five centuries after the resurrection of Christ but in the Arab peninsula the Word of God was not in their language. There were Christians in the peninsula but none were native Arabs. The native Arabs of the time were pagan and polytheistic. Tribal wars between the Arabs kept their numbers low and their people divided. Though traveling bands of Jews and Christians often came into contact with the Arabs through business there was never any social mixing or outreach being done. The churches failed to reach the Arab people and thus set the stage for a false prophet to arise amongst them.

Mohammed first received the visions that he claimed were from an angel of God after he married an older businesswoman named Khadija in 595. Because of his contact with Christians and Jews Mohammed had a lot of second hand knowledge about the prophets and Jesus. Thru his writing in the Qu’ran one will quickly notice that he mixed, matched, and distorted many of these stories. Through his book and his stories he was setting himself up as the “seal of the Prophets”. He claimed that he was the last prophet of God in a line of more than 124,000. Whatever he spoke would abrogate any other previous teachings of the prophets of the Christians and Jews.

Mohammed was infuriated that the Jews refused to believe in him as a prophet. His life was marked by constant and murderous raids of Jewish caravans. During his life he called his followers to fight those who would blaspheme Allah by rejecting his prophet. All the spoils would be theirs. Their death in battle would be met by a river of wine and many beautiful virgins in the afterlife. The Arab men flocked to this new, violent doctrine.

Mecca was the holy city of the Arab tribes long before Mohammed was born. There they would come and worship their gods at the Black Stone called the Kaaba. By the time of Mohammed’s death he had converted the Arab people into a monotheistic culture and had transformed the Kaaba and Mecca into a place to worship the creator God. As the Arab tribes traveled in and out of Mecca they united under one religion and one man – Mohammed. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs had been transformed in one generation from warring tribes of pagans to one people united for the single purpose of militantly advancing the religion of Islam.

The Prophet of Islam died in the year 632 leaving behind him his commission to spread the Muslim religion by any means necessary. What followed is the greatest military conquest any kingdom has ever accomplished in history. Within one year of the prophets death all of the Arabian Peninsula belonged to Islam. Within three years the Muslims had advanced to Damascus, Syria. Seven years later all of Egypt had fallen to the Muslims. They left destruction in their path burning all the libraries and historic records in Alexandria. By 643 they had advanced to Russia. Before the ear 700 all of present day Turkey would be conquered.

It was during that time, 70 years after Mohammed’s death, that the Muslims turned their attention toward the conquest of the Berber tribes of North Africa. Within just a few years they had “Arab-ized” the North African people and turned them into Muslims by force. Many of the Berbers joined the Muslims as they crossed the Straight of Gibraltar and took Southern Spain. The Muslim advance was halted there and would not advance any further into Europe. The reason that the church completely ceased to exist in North Africa under this persecution has never fully been understood. Maybe a deep carnality had worked its way into that generation. Maybe a false doctrine had corrupted the heart of the church so that it could not resist the Islamic doctrine. Whatever the reason, a weakened church failed to stand against the persecution and disappeared completely. The Arabs from the east poured into the fertile coasts of North Africa bringing with them their Arab language and culture.

Centuries have passed with almost no Christian presence at all. 500 years passed before the first missionary attempted to reach the Arabs of North Africa. It was a Catholic friar named Raymond Lull went against the accepted hatred for Muslims amongst Christians. He called for the Catholic Church to love the Muslims and preach the gospel instead of welding the sword. He traveled to Tunisia in the 1290’s and was soon expelled after two years of gathering a small band of converts. Years later, well past the age of eighty, Lull returned to Tunisia seeking a martyr’s crown. His biographer relates his martyrdom:

“At length, weary of seclusion, and longing for martyrdom, he came forth into the open market and presented himself to the people as the same man whom they had once expelled from their town. It was Elijah showing himself to a mob of Ahabs! Lull stood before them and threatened them with divine wrath if they still persisted in their errors. He pleaded with love, but spoke plainly the whole truth. The consequences can be easily anticipated. Filled with fanatic fury at his boldness, and unable to reply to his arguments, the populace seized him, and dragged him out of the town; there by the command, or at least the connivance, of the king, he was stoned on the 30th of June, 1315”.

After Lull, little is recorded about any mission to the Muslim world. Not until Samuel Zwimmer left in the late 1800’s do we see any activity at all of the church toward Muslims. Zwimmer acted as the greatest missionary advocate of Muslim missions. He called the church to action. He traveled witnessing of Christ all over the Muslim world including North Africa. Zwimmer challenged the church when he said, “The call to the unoccupied fields of this world is one to great faith and thus to great sacrifice.” More than 100 missionaries including men like William Borden answered Zwimmer’s challenge to the Muslim mission field. Some of those missionaries went to North Africa which was at the turn of the century occupied by France giving the missionaries much religious liberty. Though few converts were seen in those years, many seeds were sown and faith in Christ began to get a toe hold in a handful of lives.

All the efforts of missions amongst the North Africans for 1300 years amounted to only a handful of believers numbering less than 100. That is understandable considering how little church planting effort that was actually expended. Today, however, the Lord is opening incredible doors for His work in North Africa. More North Africans have accepted Christ in the last 15 years than had all 1300 year previous. Through existing radio, internet, and television broadcasts the seeds of faith are being planting in an unprecedented number of homes and hearts. In Algeria thousands of Berbers have returned to their roots in Christ! In Morocco the house church movement has grown from less than 100 members to over 1,500!

More Muslims are responding to the gospel through mail and email that we are unable to keep up with the response. North African Muslims are, for the first time in centuries, opening their hearts to Christ’s message of love, hope, and forgiveness. Stories will be told in this book to give you a specific understanding how hearts and lives are being changed. Missionaries from all over the world are right now living and working in North Africa. The church planters, however, are few. There are no Independent Baptist church planters that we know of in all of the Maghreb. The great need is for God’s people to pray, give, and go so that “the Lamb of God may receive the recompense of his suffering”: the souls of the lost and unreached.

Project North Africa